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Witty Words

There is no tomorrow. Tomorrow is here. It is called today. Today is yesterday’s tomorrow. Therefore, we should plan for tomorrow but concentrate on today with its challenges and opportunities.

There is a saying: “Never put off until tomorrow what you can do after tomorrow.” It is my personal philosophy that if you are in charge of the next few minutes, you will be in charge of your life. Life is made up of minutes which add up to weeks, months and years.

In the same way, short range goals add up to long range plans, on which career success is based. If you spend your time dwelling on tomorrow and the ramifications, you’ve missed the point – and today.

As the playwright William Congreve wrote: “Defer not till tomorrow to be wise, tomorrow’s sun to thee may never rise.”

He may be right, but it’s not positive thinking. In any case, the idea is to be productive in today’s light, not tomorrow’s.

Even the classical sages of India knew about the powers of the moment when they wrote:

“….yesterday is but a Dream,
and tomorrow is but a Vision.
But today well lived makes every
yesterday a dream of happiness
and every tomorrow a vision of Hope.
Look well therefore to this day.”

Whether you are a sales manager, supervisor, secretary, writer, actor or homemaker, you must plan your future goals. You must also recognize that goals can only be reached one day at a time. Use each day wisely, and for your sake enjoy it!.

Intalk

Intalk is one of the words I hope makes its way into the dictionary someday. I thought it would compliment words like insight, intuition, inspiration…since they all represent a skill which manifests from the inside out. Intalk is generally activated from within, yet it is a result of outside influences. Intalk is when both sides of the brain are engaged in mental conversation.

When both sides (Left & Right side of the brain) are dialoguing they use the corpus callosum as a communication center. It is composed of over 200 million brain cells, and can transmit millions of impulses at once. The question now becomes…with such an incredibly powerful bio-computer ready to do our bidding at a moment’s notice…why are most of the intalking conversations we have of a negative nature?

According to Isaac Asimov the average brain consists of over 100,000,000,000 (100 billion) cells with interconnecting links going into the Trillions. Experts estimate that to duplicate a brain we would need a computer 100 stories tall, the size of Texas. All this potential is contained in this mini-universe weighing just three pounds. Perhaps we should consider recycling our brain and see if we could make better use of it , or we could just decide to rethink what we are doing with it this time. The only difference between the Optimist and the Pessimist is how one decides to process the input he receives, and thus control his intalk. In computer talk…”garbage in, garbage out.”

Here’s an obvious suggestion which works! Fill your mind with Posimins (another one of my new words) meaning Positive Vitamins..and watch your attitude change! If you control what goes into your head you will control your intalk as well. Control your brain and you control your destiny.

Fresh Perspective

I’ve been in sales and training for more than 40 years. I signed my first contract with Encyclopedia Britannica in 1958. Four years later I was awarded the INTERNATIONAL MAN designation by the company, outselling over 2,000 sales reps. To this day I still believe I was not necessarily the best salesman in the company. Instead I used my other strengths synergistically, so that their sum total outweighed any lack of sales skills.

My belief in the product was unlimited. My enthusiasm for placing the 24 volume set in homes as well as offices was contagious and unhampered by negative attitudes. My tenacity was legendary as I would not quit selling (now consulting) until they bought or I was kicked out of their home physically.

My work hours were limited to only a half day and it did not matter which 12 hours I put in. Weekends were the big producing times since the entire family was generally to be found in one place, and I could qualify all of them before attempting to “close” the sale.

As I go around the country training sales reps and customer service consultants I find less and less enthusiasm shown for sales whether in person or by phone. It seems that once again the Pareto Principle rears its historical head (circa 1896) when Wilfredo Pareto first came out with his 80/20 formula. Over a century later I still find that 20 percent of any sizable sales force produces and earns 80 percent of all new commissions paid out by corporations.

Research continues to prove that lack of intelligence is not the main factor. Instead it’s the old and familiar traits which continue to plague most sales forces. I’m referring to the lack of PEOPLE SKILLS, which are 6 times more important than JOB SKILLS. Also more important is the ATTITUDE the sales rep brings to the job…again 6 times more important than their APTITUDE.

Builders and re-modelers are usually very competent at their trade, or they would not stay in business long. However their communication ability sometimes leaves much to be desired. To “sell” what one can build or repair remains a mystery to many who are in the building industry, and I see once more that 20 percent of those in the business bring in 80 percent of the new work being contracted for.

I recently had the privilege of working with a builder who is in business almost 15 years, yet lacked the most basic sales skills necessary for increasing the productivity of his extremely reputable firm. Fortunately he understood his weakness in the sales department, and his staff and I began a series of short meetings designed to increase their combined skills in the sales area. Their eagerness for learning the semantics of dealing with all types of personalities insures their increasing success.

If the product is great, whether to build or rebuild, and you lack the ability to transfer your enthusiasm to the prospect nothing will happen. Also, if you’re afraid of quoting prices or asking for money and/or deposits you may still be a great builder or re-modeler with no place to go. It’s been said that selling is like shaving; if you don’t do it every day you’ll end up a bum. This may sound harsh but prices being what they are, every time a prospect rejects your offer you may rest assured someone else will collect the thousands that should have been yours. Continued training is important to your business if you want to grow.